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What will be the George Bush legacy?
CBS News ^ | Sept. 3, 2008

Posted on 09/17/2008 8:05:54 AM PDT by meandog

CBS) For as long as he's been asked about it, George Bush has publically professed to not care much about his legacy.

"I'm reading about George Washington, still," President Bush said in 2006. "My attitude is, if they're still analyzing number one, 43 ought not to worry about it."

And why would he want to, given the long list of targets he's presented to his critics, CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports.

The tragically weak response to Katrina, which will always overshadow the administration getting it right - like the last few days with Gustav.

No Child Left Behind, the president's education initiative that even some supporters concede is a failure.

An economy in shambles.

"He's in the bottom 10 to five presidents in the history of the United States," James Thurber, an American University historian, said.

But the president could take heart that none of those will be his defining issues.

"I think the assessment of President Bush begins not with Inauguration Day, but with 9/11, and then it goes to Iraq," said Ken Duberstein, former chief of staff for Ronald Reagan.

And there, even Democratic critics like Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institute, say the success of the surge in Iraq will help the President's legacy.

"He went to war in a deliberately cavalier way," O'Hanlon said. "But let's also be fair. Iraq now seems to be a quasi-functioning Democracy without weapons of mass destruction, without genocides against citizens or attacks against its neighbors. So to some extent, we gotta give our president his due."

Still, presidential legacies are by their very nature an exercises in comparison. If you want to understand the signature of this two-term Republican president, compare it to the last one.

"In 1988 with Reagan in the mid-50s in popularity, everybody was clamoring for a third term with Ronald Reagan. And now the only people who are talking about a third term for President Bush are the Democrats," said Duberstein.

It seems indisputable that George Bush will address the convention, greatly diminished from his previous appearances. If the first draft of history is written by reporters, the historians, like James Thurber, are about to get their turn.

"Well all presidents think that history will change perceptions of their activities," Thurber said. "I think history will be unkind to this man."

And it would seem they won't offer the president much comfort.

© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bush; bush43; bushlegacy; failure; georgebush; greatestpresident; greatpresident; presidentbush; rino; term2
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George W. Bush is the epitome of the old axiom "Good Guys Finish Last." I have always like the president as a person but, IMHO, he's been a miserable leader and a heckuva disappointment. I'd rather have an irasible old S.O.B.who can lose his temper like George Patton than a "gentleman" like George Bush.
1 posted on 09/17/2008 8:05:54 AM PDT by meandog
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To: meandog

Clearly a political slam, trying to tie McCain to Bush and make Bush look bad. I think the best part of Bush’s legacy might be summed up as, “I don’t give a rat’s butt about the press.” (Of course, there is much more good stuff too.)


2 posted on 09/17/2008 8:08:49 AM PDT by mlocher (america is a sovereign state)
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To: meandog

He increased the size of the federal government. I am disappointed with his 2 terms in office.


3 posted on 09/17/2008 8:10:17 AM PDT by djsherin
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To: meandog
"I think the assessment of President Bush begins not with Inauguration Day, but with 9/11

But we wont mention 9/11 in this article. We wont mention the Supreme Court. What a despicable article from CBS.

W doesn't care about his legacy unlike Clinton who is still running away from his real legacy and trying to fake a different one.

4 posted on 09/17/2008 8:11:11 AM PDT by frogjerk (MSM: We will not question Obama bin Biden...)
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To: rabscuttle385; bamahead

ping


5 posted on 09/17/2008 8:11:11 AM PDT by djsherin
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To: meandog
No further terror attacks on American soil.

50 million people freed in the Middle East, which could have positive impact for hundreds of years.

Agrresive prosecution of the War against Islamic Jihad.

Very postive, conservative Supreme Court nominations and impact.

Terrible immigration policy.

SARAH PALIN's IMPACT

6 posted on 09/17/2008 8:14:06 AM PDT by Jeff Head (Freedom is not free...never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: mlocher

But where was/is the leadership? There is none, IMO. Reagan was a leader, so was Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and even Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Bush 41 to some degree. Carter, Clinton and Bush 43 have been absymal in leadership roles. They have each allowed the opposition Congress, foreign governments and/or conflicts/crisis to dominate them!


7 posted on 09/17/2008 8:14:57 AM PDT by meandog (please pray for future President McCain, day minus 138-Jan. 20--and counting)))
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To: meandog

that moveon.org, du, nbc, abc, cbs, msnbc, new york slimes, a do nothing congress and others were out to destory every thing you tried to get done and lie about you daily.

Kind of like they are doing to Sarah Palin. It is a shame the culture we are now living in but I hope more than 1/2 of the country see’s the truth.

President Bush, I welcome you and Mrs. Bush back to Texas where you don’t have to put up with the slimes in Washington.


8 posted on 09/17/2008 8:14:58 AM PDT by JFC (The libs fear us Republicans.. wait until JUDGEMENT DAY!!)
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To: meandog
It's really quite simple, and can be summed up in one word ...

SPENDING

9 posted on 09/17/2008 8:16:35 AM PDT by SengirV
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To: meandog

He will be remembered chiefly for being President during a watershed moment in human history - 9/11. He will also be remembered for the subsequent actions taken after September 11, namely the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the defeat of a deadly enemy, alQueda.


10 posted on 09/17/2008 8:18:20 AM PDT by reagan_fanatic ("And how can this be? For I am the Kwisatz Haderach! " - Barack Obama)
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To: meandog

Ramos & Compean?


11 posted on 09/17/2008 8:19:26 AM PDT by VU4G10 (Have You Forgotten?)
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To: meandog

Bush’s legacy?

They have to ask this?

No doubt his presidential library will be build with low wage illegal labor...


12 posted on 09/17/2008 8:20:06 AM PDT by dragnet2
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To: reagan_fanatic

No one would confuse him with a conservative.


13 posted on 09/17/2008 8:20:31 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: meandog
But where was/is the leadership?

I have been disappointed that the country did not take a turn to the right under his watch, so your point has some merit. Nonetheless, he gets major kudos in his approach to the war on terror, which includes ousting Sadam. I grant you that he should have let the generals fight the war; that is, the surge should have occurred much earlier. But overall, he has done well on terror.

14 posted on 09/17/2008 8:20:50 AM PDT by mlocher (america is a sovereign state)
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To: djsherin
"He increased the size of the federal government. I am disappointed with his 2 terms in office."

This may be difficult for some to understand but during a recession the revenue for the federal government decreases. This means that even if spending stayed the same, there would be an automatic inherent deficit.

Let me be specific. By personally reviewing the U.S. Treasury's monthly and yearly statements, federal revenue dropped from the years 2001 - 2003. During those years an automatic deficit of $456 billion occurred. Due to the tax cuts, federal revenue rose from year 2004 onward. In total, as an average, excluding the automatic deficit from decreased revenue, the Bush Admin ran a $155 billion dollar deficit each year up to 2007.

$155,000,000,000 deficit / $2,500,000,000,000 yearly revenue = 6.2% yearly deficit of yearly revenue.

You can verify all these numbers yourself by going to the US Treasury website and researching the yearly and monthly statements for on and off budget revenue and outlays.

15 posted on 09/17/2008 8:21:53 AM PDT by avacado
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To: meandog

16 posted on 09/17/2008 8:21:55 AM PDT by andy58-in-nh (Somewhere in Illinois, a community is missing its organizer.)
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To: Jeff Head
No further terror attacks on American soil.

You could have said the same thing about the Cold War and presidents from Truman to Reagan (who ended it).

50 million people freed in the Middle East, which could have positive impact for hundreds of years.

Not so fast...true, the Iraqi and Afghani people are free from Sadaam but not from Islamic terror. Meanwhile more THAN A BILLION people were freed from monolithic Soviet communism by Ronald Reagan!

Agrresive prosecution of the War against Islamic Jihad.

And handed off to his successor.

Very postive, conservative Supreme Court nominations and impact.

Only after Harriet Myers was turned down from consideration!

17 posted on 09/17/2008 8:22:19 AM PDT by meandog (please pray for future President McCain, day minus 138-Jan. 20--and counting)))
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To: reagan_fanatic

Agree.


18 posted on 09/17/2008 8:23:46 AM PDT by vietvet67
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To: meandog

We haven’t been attacked.

His credibility on national security and standing up against the terrorists makes him right up there with Harry Truman dropping the bombs on Japan.


19 posted on 09/17/2008 8:23:52 AM PDT by Carley (she's all out of caribou.............)
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To: meandog
Transforming an American capitalist system into hyper-globalism.

Moving our representative republic form of government more toward an oligarchy (a form of government where political power effectively rest with a small elite segment of society).

Running up our national debt to astronomical figures.

Continuing his daddy's policies facilitating the transfer of American wealth to foreign countries.

Allowing corporate America to drive Federal policy.

Mr. Bush, if I were the president of Texas for a day, my first order of business would be to expel you and your hyper-globalist family right on back to the northeast where you originated.

I would then yank your citizenship from the Republic of Texas.

Mr. Bush ,I live among conservatives, I know conservatism, I have many conservatives that are friends of mine.

Mr. President, you're no conservative.

Sorry George.

20 posted on 09/17/2008 8:25:09 AM PDT by servantboy777
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